Blue sky. Really?

(Taken with Diana F+, 38mm super-wide angle lens, Lomography XPro Slide 200 120 film.)

I have been acting like a stalker lately, going through my photographs taken from a recent Japan trip using my Diana F+ again and again.

I like photography. My first camera is a Minolta single lens reflex (SLR) camera that my dad bought me when I was a student. Then I bought my first camera in 1994. It was an interesting choice. The made-in-China Seagull twin lens reflex (TLR) camera was all that I could afford at that time. It costs S$88. It was originally S$90 but the man gave me a S$2 discount, making it an auspicious number since Chinese New Year was just round the corner.

It was an interesting choice because I was a student then and I couldn't afford to buy too many rolls of film. We used 35mm film for our photography module in polytechnic and university, and so the bulk of our pocket money naturally went into the most common film format.

Then work and parenthood came along. Then digital photography. Bytes are cheaper than film. Later, like everyone else, I used phone apps to make lomography (i.e. lomo photographs) of my mobile phone photos.

You could say I've come full circle when it comes to photography.

One of my most favorite effects of lomography is yielded through cross processing. You can read the technical explanation here but one dumb-down example of the process is when you take slide film and process it using chemicals meant for normal print film/negatives.

That's when you get crazy, sometimes extreme, oversaturated colors like in the photo I took at a cow farm in Tokachi, Hokkaido. We were told to gather at this farm one late afternoon to see cows herded home. Good grief. It was someone's idea of fun but certainly not ours.

So I stood at the back of the crowd, trying to look interested but really I was watching the boys pretend to be superheroes by jumping off a piece of big rock. Then I thought why not take a picture of the damn cows just for the heck of it.

The sky was as blue and bright as it could ever be that day. But the result on film after cross processing was a beautiful distortion of the truth. That's why I love lomography. There's everything 'wrong' with your photograph but you can, or at least I do, see beauty in imperfection.

We would be happier if we stop seeking perfection all the time, I think. It's good to see life as it is.

Blue sky

Kit ran and ran to the end of beyond at Farm Restaurant Chiyoda in Biei, Hokkaido. It was a super sunny day, and my baby spent a happy day there feeding ponies!

I was told by Kit's pre-school Chinese teacher that all the children love to be with Kit. "Yes, I heard from his father that the girls love him," I quipped. "Oh, the boys too," she said. "They fight to sit next to him during my class. I have to get him to sit next to me."

Hilarious.

Yes, Kit reminds me of blue sky, sunshine, and happy thoughts. And everyone's drawn to blue sky, sunshine, and happy thoughts. :) This made me think of some pictures of the happy blue sky that we saw in Japan recently.

The Curb Market in Sapporo took on retro colors through my Diana F+.
(Taken with 38mm super-wide angle lens, Lomography Color Negative 400 ISO 120 film.)

If there is a pantone for retro blue, this is how retro blue would look like.

We were just standing outside the entrance of a flower garden when I looked up and saw the criss-crossing electrical wires. No birds on the wire.
(Taken with Diana F+, 38mm super-wide angle lens, Lomography XPro Slide 200 120 film.)

Dreamy blue sky. I like the graduation of light blue to dramatic blue.

The ferris wheel outside the Trick Art Museum in Furano. Its cabin was stifling hot in the summer heat.
(Taken with Diana F+, 38mm super-wide angle lens, Lomography Color Negative 400 ISO 120 film.)

Sky in blue flair. Some photographers would use a filter to cut out the glare. But lomographers love the imperfection.

A winner in mediocrity

Terence likes to tease me sometimes, calling me an under-achieving mum. I don't sign my boys up for a   slew of enrichment of classes. I tell my 7yo to perform to the best of his ability, and that it's ok if he doesn't come in first or score a perfect 10. It doesn't mean that I don't push him when it comes to school work. I am also disappointed if his score isn't what I'd like it to be. But I tell him don't get too hung up on grades.

Then, I started wondering: "What if I am wrong?" Together with my 7yo, I am suddenly thrown into the formal school world where I see students (and parents) jostling to be winners, to be first, to be representing the school in a prestigious competition, to be a prefect, and oh come on, be good at something!

So I am settling for mediocrity because I don't want to compete, I am a loser, I am teaching my children to be losers. Those thoughts went through my head. Perhaps I should sign him up for violin lessons, aikido, Chinese calligraphy, drama... I don't know, something, anything?! Then we'd have a higher chance of discovering that he's a music prodigy, martial arts expert, brilliant artist. Something!

So I turned to Google for help. Typed in "mediocrity children" in the search box, and I found an entry by Dr. Wendy Mogel on The Mother Company website, whose tagline reads "Helping parents raise good people". She wrote:

"Really look to whom you've been given. You receive each child as if they are a packet of seeds without a label. You don't know when that child will bloom, you don't know what kind of flower you're going to get. Your job is to pick the biggest weeds, and then just stand back and wait.

Kai has a loving heart. He is kind.

"You may find-out that you have a child that is not an athlete, or does not have a gregarious personality, or may not be a scholar. But, they may have a wonderful heart, they may be a poet, they may be a mechanic.

Kit is never where I want him to be but he is inquisitive and strong.

"You really want to look at your child, and instead of seeking out perfect experiences, you seek what is a nice fit for their nature -- not for your own unlived life."

Sure. For every article celebrating mediocrity, we'll find another (or 10?) saying that parents should not settle for mediocrity. We'd each find one (or 100?) article that reaffirms our believes, and turn up our noses at other parents' believes. "See, I am right because THIS expert says it is so." (Na-nee-na-nee-boo-boo!)

Mediocrity. Under-achieving. Hot-housing. Over-achieving. I don't know. How does one create a balance, and is there even such a thing as balance. It's either you're mediocre or you're a winner. I think I will continue to struggle with this internally for as long as I am a mother.

What I know is my children are pretty happy. I'm a winner in mediocrity. Oh wait. See, I am a winner!

(Photographs taken with the Lomography ActionSampler with the Lomography Color Negative 400 ISO 35mm film. Unedited by any photo/image software or app.)

Trampoline and the Lomography ActionSampler

When we came back from Japan, we found that the building management had installed a new trampoline in the playground. The boys were excited but when we first discovered it, there were some big kids who were doing circus acts in it. So we decided it'd be safer to go back another day.

They loved it but soon found it too hot after 15 minutes. I got some great shots on my new Lomography ActionSampler (clear), which is so much more forgiving than the Diana F+.

The camera takes four consecutive shots in one single 35mm film. The sequence goes anti-clockwise, starting with the image on the top left.

Kit got tossed around so much when Kai was jumping that after a while, he gave up and just sat on the trampoline. Poor baby!

See. Kit's lying dow while Kai's still at it.

I'm so glad I have the ActionSampler to now catch my monkeys in action. :)

(Photographs taken with the Lomography ActionSampler with the Lomography Color Negative 400 ISO 35mm film. Unedited by any photo/image software or app.)